The Big Google Rebrand: AdWords is Dead, Long Live Google Ads

On the second day of Christmas iThinkMedia gave to me a new Google interface… Emily, our PPC Account Manager, reflects on one of the biggest Google updates of the year – the new Google Ads.

2018 is sadly coming to an end and what another huge year we have had in the world of PPC marketing! It’s time to sit back and reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly that we have witnessed throughout the year including the biggest shakeup to Google AdWords since its inception in the millennium.

The Birth of Google Ads

Right from the very beginning of 2018, advertisers started to see a notification at the top of the Google AdWords interface, which sparked fear throughout the industry.

“Google AdWords will soon be Google Ads. The Help Centre and new AdWords experience will reflect our new brand starting July 24, 2018.”

The new interface was then gradually rolled out in BETA, enabling advertisers to choose which version of the platform they wished to use. I, for one, was one of those who clicked straight back to Google AdWords every single time. After all, on top of our day-to-day account management, trying to navigate myself around a whole new platform was incredibly daunting. Why use the new interface when I could simply revert back to what I knew to get the job done quicker?

However, Google finally put their foot down at the end of July this year, to fully migrate over to the new Google Ads interface, forcing advertisers to adapt to the new Google experience without having the safety net of switching back.

The new Google experience

This update is designed to provide us, as advertisers, with more resources to manage the growing complexities of paid search advertising. It was likely instigated by the rapid increase of mobile search and the shift towards an audience-centric mindset, hence the removal of ‘words’ from the brand.

The new interface contains many new features aimed at helping us to gain the insights needed to drive performance in a hyper-competitive environment. For example, more artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning features have been introduced to automate key optimisations, freeing up advertisers to focus on account strategy and analysis.

Our verdict

Whilst initially being slightly reluctant to accept that we were having to say goodbye to AdWords, it’s now been 5 months after we parted ways and we’ve never looked back!

The transition never impacted campaign performance, navigation or reporting and it didn’t take too long to get to grips with. Since the rebrand, we’ve seen some brilliant features rolled out to help improve the efficiency of our day-to-day management including smart campaigns, showcase ads, new responsive search ads, new ad extensions, A/B testing ad variation opportunities; new bidding strategies to name but a few!

Throughout 2019, I have no doubt that Google Ads will continue to develop and push out more new features based on the signals received from advanced intelligent and machine learning to cater for the new era of digital advertising and marketing.

Connect with me on LinkedIn or tweet iThinkMediaUK and let me know your thoughts on Google Ads. Have a fabulous Christmas everyone!